---
title: In an instant the mirror lay at his feet broken into a thousand piec… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In an instant the mirror lay at his feet broken into a thousand pieces, but as every piece reflected part of himself, the dragon thought that he too had been smashed into atoms. Who acts: mirror, piece, dragon. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 4, sentence 110

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In an instant the mirror lay at his feet broken into a thousand pieces, but as every piece reflected part of himself, the dragon thought that he too had been smashed into atoms.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mirror, piece, dragon · **What happens:** lie, break, reflect, think, smash · **To what, where:** instant, feet, thousand pieces, part, dragon, atoms · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mirror, piece, dragon), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg3282:37:110
# text = In an instant the mirror lay at his feet broken into a thousand pieces, but as every piece reflected part of himself, the dragon thought that he too had been smashed into atoms.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	mirror	mirror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	_
11	into	into	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	det	_	_
19	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	reflected	reflect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
21	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
30	too	too	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
31	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	smashed	smash	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	ccomp	_	_
34	into	into	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	atoms	atom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past | the mirror |  |  | a instant |  | at dragon's feet | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in instant=Location |
| 2 | **break** | participle |  | dragon's feet *not said here* |  |  |  | into thousand pieces *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Patient into piece=Result |
| 3 | **reflect** | past | every piece | part of dragon |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the dragon |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **smash** | past · perfect · passive |  | dragon |  | atoms |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: subject=Theme into atom=Destination |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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